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Monday, July 12, 2010

Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests.

The Freeport Police Department’s staff will likely be reduced from 53 officers to 51 officers in the next two months, Chief Jerry Whitmore confirmed Monday….The union did not accept the city’s request for a pay cut in its new contract, a decision that created the strong possibility for a staff reduction.

The police union’s refusal to accept a wage freeze last year — union members received a 3.35 percent pay increase — led to a reduction of four officers through attrition, reducing the number of officers in Freeport from 57 to 53.

Proposed cuts to state reimbursements for salaries of public defenders and state's attorneys throughout the state have local county officials concerned about ramifications on upcoming budget planning.

State reimbursements are supposed to pay for two-thirds of these officials' salaries, but Quinn's proposed budget cut $8.5 million from the $14 million line items for state's attorney reimbursements and more than $3 million from the $5.7 million allocated for public defenders

The poll of 500 likely Illinois voters, taken by phone last week, has Giannoulias (currently Illinois state treasurer) with a 40-39 percent lead over Kirk, currently a congressman. That's well within the poll's 4.5 percent margin for error, meaning it's a statistical tie.

Rotec Industries Inc., which makes large concrete-handling machinery, has begun moving into one of the former Seigle's/Stock Building Supplies buildings on Industrial Drive.

And last week, the village board approved zoning to allow Dana Molded Products Inc. to build a 130,000-square-foot plant at the northwest corner of Gast and Flannigan roads….making cases for Red Box DVDs, plastic caps, appliance parts and cell phone parts. …expects the new factory to have 80 to 100 workers and anticipates many to be hired locally or to move to the Hampshire area.

BP PLC declined to comment Sunday on a report that it is in talks about possibly selling $12 billion worth of assets, including a stake in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field, to U.S. oil company Apache Corp.

Sunday Times separately said that ExxonMobil is considering a bid for BP. Citing oil industry sources, the paper said ExxonMobil had approached the Obama administration for clearance to make a takeover offer.

the state is embarking on a new approach for running the lottery. Illinois is going ahead with plans to hire a private management firm to run the lottery for the next decade. It will be the first state in the country to turn its lottery over to a private operator.

billions in ticket sales generating more than $600 million a year for use by state schools.….Some lawmakers have estimated that a private manager could produce an extra $150 million a year in profits

••Despite the down economy, 151 unionized and nonunion Metra employees each made more than $100,000 in 2009 not including retirement contributions and health-benefit costs. Factoring those in, 524 employees -- 18.4 percent of the rail agency's 2,848-member work force –make more than $100,000

••Metra paid nearly $20 million for overtime last year -- amounting to about 11 percent of its nearly $180 million payroll.

••Eleven percent of its employees -- a total of 310 -- made more than $20,000 apiece in overtime pay in 2009. Nearly a quarter of Metra workers -- 685 -- were each paid more than $10,000 for overtime